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I’m going to get back into this blogging business, and I’m really excited about the New York Yankees this season. A lot of “experts” don’t seem to be buying much stock into the Bronx Bombers this season, most likely a typical reaction to their inactivity on the free agent market. But you know what? I do think they’re going to surprise people this year.

Why do I think that? First off, there is a pretty high ceiling for this pitching staff. Their bullpen somehow got even better, and their rotation could fall into place if everything goes right. A lot of “ifs”, however, as pretty much everyone comes with a “Handle With Care” label. Three of their right-handers have dealt with elbow injuries, one finally put together a full season after being held back by a shoulder tear four years, and their oldest starter has been dealing with a degenerative knee.

When they did pitch, the Yankees’ starting pitching was a mixed bag in 2015, as they finished 19th in ERA, 11th in fWAR, and 16th in FIP. However, their peripherals suggest they should have had more positive results. As a team, they don’t walk many batters (4th lowest BB/9 in the majors), they’re above average at getting outs via strikes (7.51 K/9), and they keep the ball mostly on the ground (4th in MLB at 48.3%, 6th in grounders to flyball rate at 1.56). The Achilles’ is their home ballpark, as Yankee Stadium had the. Factoring out home runs, the Yankees’ rotation ranked 7th in the majors in FIP-, which suggests possible positive regression, as batted ball trends are rarely constant year-to-year.

Maybe they won’t lead the majors in ERA, but there is a high risk, perhaps high reward feeling surrounding this team’s rotation going into 2016. If all goes right, there’s a good reason to buy into their odds to get back into the postseason.

Last year was an endless media circus surrounding Masahiro Tanaka and his $155 million elbow. The old-timers in the New York tabloids constantly called for the Yankees to make Tanaka get Tommy John surgery, despite the dissenting opinions from several team doctors, trainers, and Dr. James Andrews himself. Tanaka spent all of May on the DL with a forearm strain related to the UCL problem, but returned to pitch more innings and starts than he did the previous year when he first sustained the injury. Despite inflated home run rates (1.46 HR/9), Tanaka finished with the lowest WHIP (0.99) in the American League and earned the start in the Yankees’ brief playoff appearance.

Now, the Yankees’ hopes rely on Tanaka once more, but the ace is right on schedule again after having a bone-spur removed from that right elbow. He is looking to start on Opening Day again, and has set his goal to throw 200 innings this season. If he manages to keep the ball in the park more consistently, he’s easily one the AL’s elite pitchers.

The 6’7″ Pineda has been an enigma in his career in Pinstripes. After missing all of 2012 and most of 2013 with a shoulder injury, Pineda impressed in a 13-start cameo in 2014. His 2015 season was about of a mixed bag as you can get. He had an impressive 7.34 K/BB rate, but was absolutely killed by the home run ball. Despite a 3.34 FIP and 2.95 xFIP, Pineda finished with a 4.37 ERA. His slider at times was very flat, which made him more hittable despite his restored velocity.

Pineda certainly has potential to be a dominant No. 2 starter, the only question is consistency. That question of consistency could be answered as he tries to finally master a third-pitch, his changeup. He began using it more last season, and it resulted in a much higher groundball rate (48.2%) than in his previous two big league seasons (39.1% in 2014 and 36.3% in his rookie year in 2011). Normally, a low-walk rate, a high groundball rate is a recipe for success, so for Pineda it depends on more consistent movement and velocity on his plus-pitches.

On a hot June night in Miami, the former Marlin got just two outs and gave up 8 runs. The fireballer’s ERA stood at 5.12. Around this time, Eovaldi began crafting his split-finger fastball, and his four-seam fastball started to reach the upper 90s regularly in the dog days of July and August. In his next 12 starts, he didn’t lose, pitching to a 2.93 ERA as opponents batted just .235 against him. Eventually, his season was cut short in the final month owed to an elbow injury.

The story of Eovaldi’s Major League career is that he gives up hits. Lots of them. However, the majority of them are singles, and Eovaldi is great at not getting hit hard (2.01 groundball to flyball rate, 52.8 groundball %, 0.58 HR/9 rate in 2015). Hitters had a .337 average on balls in play, which resulted in a 4.20 ERA on the year despite a 3.42 FIP and 3.2 fWAR.

Armed with the highest average fastball velocity in the American League, Eovaldi is looking to finally break out this season. There’s certainly no questioning his talent, stuff, or his demeanor on the mound, it’s just a matter of putting it all together: that mix of stuff and luck.

After blazing through the minors last season, the Yankees’ 22 year-old pitching prospect gave them much-needed help in the rotation in August and September. His stuff is absolutely legit: a fastball that regularly hits the upper 90s, a slider that can hit 90 mph, and a changeup that still needs development but has a late drop.

But we probably need to simmer down our expectations for now, as the Yankees will set an innings and pitch count limit for the Dominican right-hander. Over the course of his 11-start debut last year, his FIP was a high 4.37 due to a propensity to the long ball and limited outings. The Yankees will take it easy on the

Redemption: CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova

Lastly we have the back-end, and it leaves much to be desired. Sabathia led the team in innings, but continued his long and ugly decline into old age in 2015 before checking into an alcohol-rehabilitation facility upon the conclusion of the regular season. The 35 year-old former ace is currently favored to fill the No. 5 spot over Nova, but velocity continues to trend downwards and his home run rates continue to rise. With a knee brace now on his leg to combat his declining condition, keeping people off base to limit his homers to solo shots and remastering his signature slider is pretty much his only hope this season.

After returning from Tommy John surgery in June last year, Nova struggled to re-discover the consistency he enjoyed in 2013. After pitching to a 3.10 ERA in his first seven starts last year, he struggled late in the season and was removed from the rotation in September. The 29 year-old regained his pre-surgery velocity, but the movement in his pitches simply wasn’t there. After a full, regular offseason, Nova looks to regain form in whatever role he can be provided. He could very well fill the Adam Warren-role as the spot starter and long man for the team, and with the injury risks all over this rotation, he should have the ability to win his chance throughout the season.

Oh, it’s been a long time, but I’ve finally gotten to see this familiar sight again.

Cooler weather, Halloween, school, and the New York Yankees in the postseason. Those things have stuck with me and I expect it all every time October rolls around. It was a shame to not have it all the past two years, but now it’s back. The Yankees are back in the playoffs and everything’s normal again.

The previous two years were absolutely disappointing. Injuries, declining stars, and having to say goodbye to a group of legends that you grew up with and knew so well. It looked as if the Yankees were done. You’re used to seeing them in the postseason, so it’s such an unfamiliar feeling to see them out. It was their birthright to play in October, but it looked like it wasn’t going to be that way anymore.

Going into this season, we thought it would become a real trend. team was even older than before. It probably seemed inevitable that this would happened, but at the same time it was hard to imagine it. The Yankees being bad? Impossible. The Yankees are as eternal as time. No matter who wearing the Pinstripes there, they’re still the same. Competing every October for the crown and often winning it. From Ruth and Gehrig to DiMaggio and Berra to Mantle and Maris to Munson and Jackson to Jeter and Rivera, they are always there. Still, it was a reality many of us fans were ready to face.

But it began different than what we expected. The bats returned. The bullpen was solid. The rotation was doing enough. Old friends like Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez did some things we hadn’t seen from them in years. Youth was coming. It looked like a throwback to the glory days. The Yankees looked as if they were a serious team again. The Yankees looked like the Yankees once again, and our fears could be calmed.

Then, what we feared what would happen at first finally happened. Teixeira broke down, A-Rod slowed down, Sabathia continued his decline. Everyone stopped hitting. The pitching, starting and relieving, became totally gassed. Every step forward was followed with three or four back. The team limped to the end of the regular season, and it makes you wonder if their hot start only saved them from another early winter.

At the same time, we saw seen a glimpse of what could be a bright future, instead of a doomed one. The young ones arrived and showed what they could do. Luis Severino responded to the hype and pressure of being the team’s potential ace of the future and has put himself in the Yankees’ present. Greg Bird flew in and picked up from Teixeira left off. Slade Heathcott and Mason Williams had a moment in their brief cameos. Rob Refnsyder showed what the Yankees foolishly missed when he finally got his chance.

Even with this horrible finish, the Yankees get a fresh start on Tuesday. It’ll be win or go home, so it could be the end there or the beginning of the real business. Toronto, who has owned them all season, could be waiting for them. That could be the turning point.

This could be a pivotal time for the franchise. Could this be the beginning of a new era of greatness for the greatest franchise in sports? Or is it the first page that long rebuild many said is inevitable? They face a tough road to that familiar endpoint of glory, but we can’t forget that history tells you the Yankees are no stranger to this kind of setting. We aren’t either. Which is why it feels so good be back.

It appears that a new era will dawn on the New York Yankees tonight, as 21 year-old Luis Severino will make his Major League debut under the bright lights of the new House. In the middle of a pennant race. Against the hated Boston Red Sox.

The young Dominican right-hander will likely be unfazed by the challenge, as he’s already improved with each successive promotion.

Armed with a fastball that touches 97 mph, a deceptive change-up, and an improving slider, Severino went 7-0 with a 1.91 ERA in 61.1 in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after pitching to a 3.00 ERA in 14 previous starts in Double-A Trenton.

“We are really, really excited for him,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “It shouldn’t be miscast, either. We’ll let him get his feet wet and see what he can do. He is a really exciting cat. I think he could have a very good career, but he is still young and he is still developing.”

Despite warts in the Yankees’ rotation, they stood pat at the Trading Deadline last week. Perhaps it was on purpose.

Severino’s rise has an even greater meaning for the Yankees organization. He is the latest chance for them to prove that they can successfully develop a successful starting pitcher from within to become part of their franchise’s core.

Since the debut of Andy Pettitte 20 years ago, the Yankees have continuously been unsuccessful at developing consistent starting pitchers from the farm system. In general, many of their top prospects have not panned out much at all.

It’s a consistent failure that has caused the team to underachieve, as they’ve won just one World Series since 2000 despite spending over $1 billion in player salary since. It’s a pestering failure that has caused the Yankees to miss the playoffs the previous two seasons. It’s a constant failure that has put them at a disadvantage against every other team that has managed to develop and hold onto top flight starting pitchers.

It’s not like they haven’t tried, however.

Just eight years ago, the Yankees had not one, but three top pitching prospects for whom they had sky high hopes for, just like they have now for Severino. However, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy all turned out to be major disappointments.

Chamberlain struggled with his control and was permanently banished to the bullpen. He’s now in the Toronto organization after being let go by the Yankees and Detroit. After a brief success in the 2010 season, Hughes lost his fastball and his ability to keep the ball in the park, thus forcing him to retreat to wide open Target Field in Minnesota, where he has pitched better. Kennedy enjoyed brief success in Arizona, winning 21 games with a 2.88 ERA in 2011, but has mostly been a mediocre starter due to a lack of a plus fastball.

Really, the only productive starting pitcher the Yankees have developed in the last two decades is Ivan Nova, who has been either superb in some seasons or just bad in others.

The main issue is arguably the innings limit the Yankees are regularly obsessed with when handling their pitchers, rookie or veteran. They fiddled too much with Joba and Hughes’ inning count in their first go-arounds as Major League starters, and they paid the price.

The Yankees hope to find the formula for success in Severino. Despite an unusual delivery that hardly involves his lower body, he has all the goods to become a top of the rotation starter.

Now, it’s different. Despite having a reputation for moving their prospects through the system slower than most organizations, they’ve moved Severino up very quickly, and he has responded.

Despite previously setting an innings cap at 150 for Severino for the year, Cashman stated after announcing Severino’s call to the majors that the training wheels are off. They’re letting him take flight.

“There’s risk in throwing some of the young guys in the Atlantic Ocean and saying, ‘Time to swim,’” Cashman told Chad Jennings last week. “But that’s also something we’re not afraid of in some guys’ cases. We do like this team, and we have benefited from the use of a lot of the young guys throughout this season. We still look forward to these guys hopefully contributing to us.”

Without an innings limit, Severino could place himself into the Yankees’ plans for the rest of THIS season, not just next year. With holes in the rotation, he has the chance to become part of the Yankees’ quest to get back into the playoffs for the first time since 2012, and also be apart of a possible deep run in October.

Brian McCann and Alex Rodriguez have lead the Yankees to a commanding lead in the American League East (Photo: The Associated Press)

The New York Yankees are en fuego. The rest of the American League East is going down in flames. This week’s sweep of Baltimore may have been a death kneel for the rest of the division.

That’s the simple explanation as to why the Yankees have built a surprising 5 1/2 game lead in the division after going 7-2 in their last three division series, capped by a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. They are now 12-4 in the month of July with everyone else in the East sinking. According to FanGraphs, the Yankees have a 79.3% chance of winning the division and even a 26.4% of winning the American League pennant and going to the World Series (higher than Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Houston)

New York has returned Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Miller from the disabled list to bolster their already dangerous lineup and bullpen respectively. They are second in the majors in runs scored and fifth in wRC+. After six innings, they are 39-2. After seven, 44-2. After eight, 50-0. All thanks to their sturdy bullpen. They are just another piece from becoming serious World Series contenders.

The rest of the division is in dire straights. The Toronto Blue Jays are in second with pitching problems. The Tampa Bay Rays are 6.5 games back when they were in first just a month ago. The Orioles are now seven games back. The Boston Red Sox, after climbing to within 5.5 games ahead of their meeting with the Yankees at Fenway Park before the All-Star Break, have lost eight in a row and have fallen to 12 games back. The Yankees are the only team that has surged in July; the rest of the division’s pain is their own gain.

Obviously it would be foolish to call the race over, but the Yankees are sitting pretty while the rest of the division is scuffling and trying to figure out what to do before the trade deadline next Friday. The Yankees don’t need to make a move as much as everyone else does.

A sweep at the hands of the Yankees may have turned the Orioles from buyers to sellers. Now seven games back, they could look to deal several of their free agents-to be: LHP Wei-Yin Chen (2.86 ERA/4.06 FIP in 116.1 IP this season), slugger Chris Davis (21 HR, 119 OPS+, 2.8 bWAR), submarine reliever Darren O’Day (1.04 ERA and a 11.9 K/9 rate and an All-Star selection in 34.2 IP), and Matt Wieters (.683 OPS in 114 plate appearances but remains one of the best defensive catchers in the game coming off Tommy John surgery) could all be dealt in order for Baltimore to retool their scarce farm system.

Tampa Bay has also been in free-fall since the end of June. They peaked at 40-30 on June 20th, but since they are 8-19. They have an elite pitching staff led by Chris Archer, Nate Karns, and Jake Odorizzi; but the blatant lack of major league caliber hitting has finally come back to bite them. According to Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times, the Rays are already listening to offers for their relief corps, particularly All-Star closer Brad Boxberger (22 saves out of 24 opportunities with a 3.18 ERA) and LHP Jake McGee (1.19 ERA in 22.2 IP).

The Red Sox will also likely (once again) become sellers; for the third time in the last four seasons they sit in dead last in the division (and the entire American League as well!). They have the worst pitching staff in the American League, so they aren’t just one move from being relevant. They have one of the best farm systems in baseball, so it would be a bad move to use it up to make a foolish attempt to climb back from a 12 game deficit in the division and a 9.5 deficit for the second wild card.

The biggest threat to the Yankees is Toronto. The Blue Jays have the most dangerous lineup in all of baseball. They lead the majors in runs scored by a significant margin and their run differential is second only to St. Louis. However, they are just one game over .500 because of poor pitching, which ranks 12th in the AL in team ERA. Their only reliable starter is Mark Buerhle (120 ERA+/3.80 FIP), so they look to be active buyers before the deadline, actively looking for whatever starting pitching they can find, even if it isn’t an ace like Johnny Cueto. Just one starting pitcher with this offense will make the Blue Jays a much more serious threat to the Yankees.

The Yankees should look to make a move. They don’t seem to be willing to trade the team’s top prospects, RHP Luis Severino and 6’7″ slugger Aaron Judge for a rental like Mike Leake or Johnny Cueto.

New York should look to add a starting pitcher, as their rotation has all-around been shaky: 19th in ERA, 12th in FIP. Although Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda have overall been solid, their health and consistency is still questionable. CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi have pitched poorly all season, but the Yankees are still hoping for more consistency to come in the coming months.

On a more positive note, Ivan Nova has a 3.34 ERA in his five starts since returning from Tommy John surgery. He does have a 4.82 FIP due to a lack of strikeouts and command issues, so there still is some rust. His improvement will lessen the need for a trade.

While the rest of the AL East is figuring out where they go next, the Yankees have their sights set on October.

I wrote this two years ago, and my message remains the same. Just wanted to add some other things as well.

Normally I use this blog to rant about the events going on in the worlds of sports and politics. But this issue is really important to me.

As you all may be aware, the month of April is dedicated to the awareness and acceptance of children and people with autism, a neural disorder that affects the development of a child’s social and communication skills. In 2012, about 20 kids per populations of 1,000 were diagnosed with autism in the United States.

Autism is one of THREE major disorders recognized in a range of behavioral and development disorders forming the autism spectrum. The other two are: Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger’s syndrome.

Asperger’s is a high functioning form of autism that specifically affects social interaction skills and some behavioral patterns that would be considered eccentric. Another major symptom includes the development of intense and sometimes obsessive interests in things, and a refusal to try other things.

Some people may not notice that a person has asperger’s because they seem to be totally normal as they mature, but early on they have trouble fitting in with peers and society. But eventually many of them go on to become very successful in adult life. In a way, I think this is why I feel that asperger’s isn’t recognized by the general population the way autism is.

I have Asperger’s syndrome. I was diagnosed when I was about two years old, when I couldn’t really speak yet. My mother told me she was very scared that I would never be able to overcome it or be successful as an adult. Throughout my childhood, I struggled to fit in because my social skills developed very slowly. I developed intense interests in sports, video games, and music, and I’m still obsessive about them every day in a way.

During my early years of school (pre-school, kindergarden, 1st grade) I was sectioned off from regular students based on my IEP, and forced to attending special classes with other kids with autism spectrum disorders. I didn’t really feel comfortable there because many of those kids had real autism and had it worse than me.

Even up until high school, I had to attend group “speech” sessions. There, I often met other kids with asperger’s and kids with autism. But as I grew older and more mature, I began to wonder why I needed them so I stopped in my sophomore year, since by then I was a top A/B student taking Advanced Placement and Honors classes.

But even though I had no trouble doing well in more difficult classes in school, Asperger’s syndrome still seriously affected my social skills and it still does today. I used to have trouble forseeing the consequences of my actions and often did things that were viewed as eccentric by my peers. In middle school, I had random outbursts in the middle of class when I got either angry or distraught.

Of course, none of them knew what was wrong with me and thought I was just crazy, so I didn’t really have any friends until high school. I finally started to mature by then and finally found my circle of friends on my high school’s baseball team, as I became an assistant to the coaches. I left New Jersey after graduating high school, and I split my time between going to college in New York City and spending summers and breaks in South Carolina. It’s still been difficult trying to find new friends.

Even as a young adult nearing 21 years old in May, I still am affected by Asperger’s. I have always had trouble adjusting to new things and have fear of meeting new people, speaking in front of groups of people. I sometimes have random, compulsive thoughts when meeting people that I have learned to control, but it makes me appear and feel socially awkward. Even though I am doing very well in college, I still have had trouble making new friends at college.

Many people with asperger’s have been able to overcome the disorder and go on to become very successful. Famous people who may have had the disorder include Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Mark Zuckerberg, several of the Founding Fathers of our country, Alfred Hitchcock, Bill Gates, and comedian actors Michael Palin and Robin Williams. Indeed, the disorder mostly affects social skills rather than intelligence.

However, many people believe that the disorder’s effect on social interaction development can lead some people to impulsive, and explosive behavior. Some people have gone out and blamed recent mass shootings on Aspergers. I assure you that even if they did have the disorder, they are so few and the stigma is cruel and unfair. We’re not like that. At all.

I think people need to be aware of our struggles with Asperger’s and should embrace us. We are normal. We are intelligent. We are inventive. We are strong. We are just like everyone else. We just have trouble fitting in and we need help to find our way from our peers.

I really hope to one day go into more and more detail of my childhood and life growing up with Asperger’s and eventually write a book about it. I want to help promote the awareness and acceptance of my disorder so my generation’s children will not be alone and misunderstood by their peers like I once was in middle school.